VIDEO: Growing Healthy Food Indoors

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How Many of us Live in Apartments or

Townhomes And long For a Big Backyard to Start a Garden?

Well with new technology, indoor herb growers give anyone the chance to grow their own food. You don't even need a backyard anymore to grow healthy foods.

Now, you can do it all from the comfort of your home. In this article, we're going to talk about our favorite indoor herb grower right now and why you should try it for yourself!

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With this video you will learn how to grow healthy foods indoors.

Nick Greens Grow Team

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Autogrow Cracks The Yield Prediction Code With FarmRoad

After three years of research, development, lab and farm trials; Autogrow’s FarmRoad solution has set the global benchmark for crop yield prediction with an initial 90 percent accuracy rate.

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“Accurately predicting harvest time and yield is the holy grail of agriculture. It allows clarity of availability to the entire food chain from the grower to the marketer and on to the consumer. Getting 90 percent accuracy rate up to six weeks out in our first three farms has been exceptional,” says CEO Darryn Keiller.

 “Under-production and over-production can financially impact a farm. Under supply brings both less revenue, potential financial penalties from purchasers e.g. supermarket chains and the need to buy off a competitor to meet contractual requirements. Over production creates a surplus, which is then sold on the open market, usually at a price less than market value. It’s an unpalatable and expensive roller coaster ride.”

“When you consider the numbers, the ROI (return on investment) of increasing yield prediction of tomatoes by 10 percent - from 80 to 90 percent - based on a 30ha grower producing 60kg/sqm could be up to USD $1.3million. Savings can also be made with regards to labor by automating manual forecasting and through increased efficiency of farming practices.”

FarmRoad’s Yield Prediction model has initially been created to service large scale greenhouse tomato producers combining the biophysical understanding of crop varieties, with crop and environmental data and proprietary A.I. based models and engines. The service is built and hosted on AWS cloud, and can be delivered to any enterprise farm operator, anywhere in the world.

“Not only do we have on average 90 percent accuracy but we are achieving that working with three different growers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, using a mix of hydroponic substrate and soil and utilizing three different tomato cultivars - Marnax by Axia Seeds, Maxeza by Enza Zaden and Merlice by De Ruiter Seeds; showing the flexibility of our AI-based prediction,” says Mr. Keiller.

Accurate yield prediction is dependent on available data and variables include weather, pest and pathogen events and management practices. The industry baseline for large scale greenhouse production ranges from no prediction to 80 percent certainty up to two weeks in advance for the more experienced growers.  FarmRoad is 90 percent accurate from one to six weeks in advance and anticipates achieving 95 percent accuracy within six months.

“Tomatoes are one of the most complex plants to apply yield prediction, but there is also a substantial amount of data available due to the crop registration techniques growers utilize. The key to prediction is the availability of data and we have been incredibly lucky to work with some fantastic growers with over 40+ years of experience who have shared their knowledge and data,” says Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Morgan. 

“The first step is getting the data, but the biggest challenge has been turning the data into a form that works. When you look at environmental data, it is great for controlling systems but it’s not easy to go from the real-time data to a prediction of how plants are going to grow. When you also add in unexpected variables like a grower changing from loose pick to truss tomatoes half-way through the growing cycle, then your accuracy rate can decrease.”

With yield prediction achieved, Autogrow is currently developing crop registration and crop planning services.

“Yield Prediction by FarmRoad, is one of our many industry-leading services designed to enhance crop productivity and make farm operators more profitable. With their personalized yield model, growers can utilize their prediction and trends to materially improve farm profitability. The future is A.I. and digital farming, and we look forward to working with large scale growers who are looking to utilize their own data and gain a competitive and financial edge,” says Mr. Keiller.

For more information www.farmroad.io or email info@farmroad.io

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MEDIA QUERIES

Kylie Horomia, Head of Communications
(e) Kylie.horomia@autogrow.com
(m) +6421 733 025
(w) www.autogrow.com  www.farmroad.io  www.cropsonmars.com  

Sales queries – info@farmroad.io 

About Autogrow

Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science, and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible, and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.

Our hardware, software, and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.

We are the experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and continue to stay ahead of a rapidly evolving landscape. 

Autogrow, Level 1, Building 3, 61 Constellation Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 0632, New Zealand

The Indoor Farm Revolution

Coronavirus chaos has spurred a grow-your-own food movement — and space-age hydroponic technology is rising to meet it.

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By Chris Taylor

NOTE FOR 2020 READERS: This is the eleventh in a series of open letters to the next century, now just 80 years away. The series asks: What will the world look like at the other end of our kids' lives?

Dear 22nd Century,

For all the pain, grief and economic hardship the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has sown, a handful of green shoots seem to have taken root in its blighted soil.

Green being the operative word, because many of these developments could be a net positive for the planet. In lockdown, many of us are seeing what our cities look like without smog. Office workers are experiencing office life without the office; just last week, Twitter announced that most of its employees could work from home forever, while much of Manhattan is reportedly freaking out about what could happen to commercial real estate. Thousands of companies just discovered they can still function, and maybe even function better, when they don’t chain employees to desks or force them to make a soul-crushing, carbon-spewing commute 10 times a week.

And what do more people do when they’re spending more time at home? Well, if you’re like my wife, you start literally planting green shoots. Our house is filling up with them as I write this: lettuce, chard, tomatoes, basil, strawberries, to name the first five shoots poking out of dozens of mason jars now taking up residence on every windowsill. She’s hardly alone; garden centers and seed delivery services are reporting as much as 10 times more sales since the pandemic began. Even the mighty Wal-Mart has sold out of seeds. If viral Facebook posts and Instagram hashtags are any guide, pandemic hipsters have moved on from once-fashionable sourdough starters to growing fresh fruit and veg. 

Another one of our cyclical “back to the land” movements seems to be underway, just like during the 1960s and the Great Depression before that. Only this time, we don’t need land. We don’t need soil. We don’t need pesticide of any kind. We don’t even need natural light. Thanks to giant leaps forward in the science of hydroponics and LED lighting, even people in windowless, gardenless apartments can participate in the revolution. With a number of high-tech consumer products on the way, the process can be automated for those of us without green thumbs. 

In previous letters I’ve discussed the inevitable rise of alternative meat, a process that has been accelerated by the pandemic. I talked about the smaller, more nutritious plant-based meals we're going to need for life extension; I assumed such meals would be delivered by drone. But now I see a future with no food deserts, in which every home is filled with rotating space-station-like hydroponics run by artificial intelligence — a cornucopia of push-button farming providing the side salad to your plant-based meat. 

Even if you don’t grow your own, robot-run vertical farms and community “agrihoods,” now springing up everywhere, will make amazing-tasting produce abundant and cheap. The “locavores” of our era like to boast about their 100-mile diet. Yours will look more like a 100-yard diet. 

Green, not soylent 

It’s worth remembering that it wasn’t supposed to be this way. The 2020s, in fact, is when we were slated for starvation, food riots, and big business quietly processing our corpses into food. 

That’s the plot of the 1973 movie Soylent Green, set in the year 2022. Fruit and veg have all but vanished. In one scene, Charlton Heston's detective hero smuggles home a single tomato and a wilted stick of celery, enough to reduce his roommate Sol (Edward G. Robinson) to tears. On the other end of the future, in a lighter but equally depressing vein, the 2006 comedy Idiocracy showed the Americans of 2500 running out of crops because they couldn’t figure out that water, not "Brawndo" (a spoof on colorful sports drinks), is “what plants crave.”

But these dismal future visions are receding thanks to the science of hydroponics — which dates back to the 19th century, no matter its present-day association with growing marijuana. By the 1930s, we’d figured out that what plants crave is surprisingly minimal: nitrogen, a handful of minerals, something to anchor the roots like rock wool or coconut husks, and H2O. Early hydroponic farms helped feed U.S. soldiers as they hopped through the Pacific during World War II.

Minimalist methods multiplied, and are still multiplying. We’re tweaking the spectrum of LED lights for maximum growth, and figuring out ways to use progressively less water and nutrients. My wife’s mason jar seedlings use something called the Kratky method, where you don't even need to change the water. It turns out this method was invented by a Hawaiian scientist as recently as 2009. And it’s the closest science has yet given us to a free lunch.

Reinventing the wheel

I’m nowhere near as excited by hydroponics as my wife is. But during our quarantine time, even my head has been turned — by the Rotofarm, which I’ve come to think of as the iPhone of gardening. It’s a beautiful device inspired by NASA research on growing plants in space. It uses anti-gravity — literally, when the wheel rotates around its LED light source and the plants are hanging upside down — to grow plants faster. A magnetic cover reduces the glare and increases the internal humidity. You manage it via an app.

Humankind’s oldest technology turns out to be the most efficient use of space for growing plants; even in this 15-inch-wide wheel, you can really pack them in. At the bottom of the wheel, plants dip their roots into the water and nutrient tanks. An owner’s only job is to refill the tanks every week or so, and to snip off their dinner with scissors a few weeks after germination. Some leafy greens, like my favorite salad base arugula, can be regrown without replanting.

Still, to be fully self-sufficient, a future apartment is going to need to have multiple Rotofarm-style devices on the go at once — but they’re designed to live anywhere you can plug in, on coffee tables, on desks, on walls, as eye-catching as artwork.

The main problem with the Rotofarm: It isn’t actually on sale yet. “It feels like we’ve done everything in reverse,” Rotofarm creator Toby Farmer said when I reached him via video chat from his home in Melbourne. “We’ve got the patents, we’ve got the design awards, we’ve got the customers. Now we need to finish the prototypes.” (One key tweak: reducing Rotofarm’s energy requirements, which as it stands could double many users’ household electricity bills.)

Still, orders have come from as far afield as Japan and the Netherlands, from retailers and regular users alike. Farmer’s biggest regret: When Ron Howard’s production company called, hoping to use eight Rotofarms in an upcoming Nickelodeon show set in space, Farmer didn’t have enough to spare.

Rotofarm has been in the works for a few years, but a crowdfunded Indiegogo campaign that closed last month exceeded its $15,000 goal by a third of a million dollars. Farmer, despite his name, had no experience in this area; just 23 years old, he had been a web designer since the age of 12. But he’s scaling up fast, hiring teams in LA and Singapore, soaking up their knowledge (he was keen to assure me he’d hired a lot of 40-somethings for this very reason).

After a projected 2021 release date, Rotofarm’s business model involves making money on proprietary seed pods — though Farmer admits that “there’s a DIY aspect” where customers can make their own. His hope is that official Rotofarm pods will be competitive because they’ll have fewer germination failures, but he'd rather see a world where more people own the device itself. In that spirit, he’s making it modular — the LED light bar can be upgraded separately, for example, rather than making customers buy a whole new device. (As for cost, Farmer says he can't comment yet — though Indiegogo backers were able to secure one for $900 a pop.) 

Might the Rotofarm fail? Of course, just like any other crowdfunded project. Much depends on its price point, as yet unannounced. But it’s far from the only next-level, set-it-and-forget-it hydroponic station taking aim at your kitchen. There’s a Canadian Kickstarter called OGarden that also grows food on a wheel, albeit a much larger wheel. The OGarden was funded in its first six minutes online and is set to cost around $1,000 per unit. There’s Farmshelf, a $4,900 pre-order hydroponic device that looks like a see-through refrigerator, backed by celebrity chef Jose Andres. Users will pay a $35 monthly subscription to get all the seeds they need. 

One of these models is the future; maybe all of them are. Right now, these are high-end devices aimed at early adopters (and restaurants, which get a lot of benefit out of showing off how fresh their produce is as customers walk-in). But with scale, with time, and with the growing desire for grow-your-own food that Rotofarm and its brethren have revealed, they will get cheaper and more widespread. 

After all, the first Motorola cellphone, in 1983, cost $4,000. It looked like a brick and had 30 minutes of talk time. Now sleek, supercomputer-driven smartphones are accessible to pretty much everyone. The same process will happen in-home hydroponics. 

Rise of the vertical farm

Give it 80 years, and I can see apartments with built-in hydroponic farms provided as a standard utility, much as a fridge is seen as a standard feature today. As more humans move to urban environments — two out of every three people will be in cities by 2050, according to the latest UN estimate — the need for such devices will only grow.

“We strongly believe the future of gardening is indoor gardening and more individual gardens,” OGarden CEO Pierre Nibart told us last year. “Stopping mass agriculture and starting to produce their own little stuff at home.” He said this while demonstrating his family's daily OGarden routine: His kids harvest most of what they need for dinner from the spinning wheel. 

Mass agriculture hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory where produce is concerned. And in the post-coronavirus age, we are surely going to become less tolerant of the disease its intensive farming methods have caused.

Food poisoning caused by romaine lettuce, which makes up a quarter of all leafy greens sold in the U.S., has become depressingly familiar. The 2018 E Coli outbreak was the worst — it sickened 240 people in 37 states, hospitalized almost half of them, and killed five. But the CDC has logged 46 E Coli outbreaks since 2006 and says that every reported case of infection is likely matched by 26 unreported ones. And they’re only just starting to figure out the most likely cause: groundwater contaminated by nearby cattle manure. There could also be an infection from passing birds, another major vector of bacteria. 

Never mind the wet markets of Wuhan that likely caused the coronavirus pandemic. We’re already sickening ourselves on the regular with a problem that is baked directly into our food system — and it’s affecting vegans as much as meat-eaters. 

I have no doubt you’ll look at our barbaric farming methods and shake your heads. Why did they use so much water? Why did they transport produce an average of 1,500 miles? Why did they grow it outdoors, where it’s vulnerable to pests, and then use pesticides that had to be washed off? Why did they think “triple washing” did anything to remove bacteria (it doesn’t)? Why did they bother using soil, for goodness’ sake? Didn’t they know what plants crave?

The force of legacy agriculture is strong, but an increasing number of companies are figuring out a better way: the vertical farm, so named because they can stack hydroponic produce in shelves or towers. As I write this, there are more than 20 vertical farm operations being constructed and tested around the country. They use around 90 percent less water than regular soil farms, can grow roughly 10 times more food per acre than regular soil farms, and using precision software they can harvest their produce 30 percent faster than regular soil farms. 

Sure, they’re spending more on electricity, but they’re also spending nothing on pesticide. The economics seem irresistible.

Last year, less than 20 miles from where I write this, in highly urbanized South San Francisco, a company called Plenty unveiled its flagship operation, a vast vertical farm named Tigris. Its sheer scale invites the correct usage of California’s favorite word, “awesome.” Tigris can grow a million plants at once, harvesting 200 of them every minute. With $226 million in funding, Plenty says it has already farmed 700 varieties of produce. Right now, the cost to consumers is comparable to non-hydroponic products (I can get their baby arugula at my nearest Safeway for a dollar an ounce); in the long run, it should be cheaper.

And they are far from the only success story. A Chinese startup, Alesca Life, is turning disused parking lots into vertical farms as well as selling plug-and-play shipping container farms. Back in Silicon Valley, a company called Iron Ox is developing robot arms for indoor farmwork. The future looks green and bountiful, and mostly automated (which is yet another reason you’re going to need Universal Basic Income). 

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Fresh future: Inside Plenty's vast vertical farm in South San Francisco.PLENTY

Which is not to say that outdoor agriculture is going away completely; it’s just going to shrink to the size of a community garden. That’s the basis of new urban developments called “agrihoods,” or multi-home communities centered around a professionally managed farm; a just-published book called Welcome to the Agrihood represents their first directory. 

Rooftop organic farms, urban allotments: These are places where city dwellers can connect to the land and feel the satisfaction of nurturing their seeds from scratch. Soil may not be necessary to feed us, but sometimes it’s good to feel the dirt in your fingers. Similarly, farmer's markets are unlikely to go away. In a world where grocery stores are increasingly becoming delivery centers for services like Instacart, there will still be value in meeting and buying direct from the growers of high-end produce. 

With big agribusiness heading indoors, with our apartments growing much of what we need and vertical farms providing backup in every city, we’ll also be able to let most of our present-day farmland go fallow. That in itself should take care of a chunk of climate change, considering the amount of carbon-soaking vegetation that springs up on fallow land. Lab-grown and plant-made meat will remove the need for those disease-ridden feedlots. Aquaponics, another discipline where the science is expanding by leaps and bounds, may even let us grow our own fish for food, reducing the strain on our overfished oceans.

No doubt it won’t be all smooth sailing. No doubt we, as humans, will stumble upon fresh ways to mess up the planet and make life worse. But from where I’m sitting, surrounded by soilless germinating jars, the future looks very green and nutritious indeed.

Yours in leafy goodness,

2020

TOPICS: Tech, Tech, Food, Health & Fitness, dear 22nd century, Internet Of Yum, Indoor-gardening

Why The Indoor Farming Movement Is Taking Off

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CHRISTIAN COTRONEO 

May 20, 2020

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No soil. No sun. No problem. (Photo: Yein Jeon/Shutterstock)

As the world emerges from a pandemic that has kept about one in five people in their homes for weeks, it's little surprise that the idea of indoor farming is gaining traction. After all, we've had a lot of time to think about what we can do indoors — and maybe even ponder what we may have done outdoors that contributed to this mess.

You wouldn't think farming, one of humanity's oldest and most crucial endeavors, would be on that list. But as the number of mouths that need to be fed has grown, so too has the need for arable land. To meet that demand, industrial farming, with its reliance on large-scale, intensive production of crops and chemical fertilizers, has dramatically transformed much of the Earth's surface. Along the way, it has erased vital wildlife habitats, addled our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and undermined the health of communities living near those lands.

Indoor farming, on the other hand, isn't as land-intensive. In fact, new technologies and advancements in hydroponics are making it possible to grow crops without pesticides, soil or even natural light. And since indoor crops can be stacked vertically, there's no need for vast tracts of land. Imagine farms as downtown office towers, offering floor after floor of fresh produce.

A recent study from the World Wildlife Fund confirms that indoor farming can save land and water. But it also identified a few hurdles. In the absence of sunlight, indoor operations have to rely on powerful artificial lights that use a lot of energy and produce so much heat that some indoor farms have to rely on air conditioning year-round. Ramping up the scale of those farms may only shift the burden from land to energy use — although, as the study notes, we can expect technology to improve energy efficiency.

In fact, the WWF puts so much stock in its potential, it's helping the city of St. Louis transform its network of abandoned caves into indoor farms.

Farming takes a bite out of the wilderness

At first blush, it may seem like an unlikely partnership. What does an organization dedicated to wilderness preservation have to do with the development of farms? But part of the WWF's mandate is to find ways to reduce the environmental imprint of growing food, especially since vital habitats like forests are often cleared to make space for farmland.

"We're looking for new business models, new strategies and partnerships, and different ways of approaching things that are financially profitable as well as environmentally sustainable," Julia Kurnik, the WWF's director of innovation startups, tells Fast Company. "Our goal as an institute is to find things that can happen quickly and at scale, so that's why we're interested in making sure they can really take off and live beyond our investment."

But will indoor crops — whether housed in sky-spanning towers or intricate caves — ever fully replace their outdoor counterparts as breadbasket to the world?

Probably not. Even vertical farms stacked as high as skyscrapers will eventually run into the same space constraints — unless, of course, we find a way to stack them to the moon. And we're just talking about a perfect vegetarian world here. No one is thinking about confining animals to caves and towers.

Besides, we're all relatively new to the trade. After all, humans don't have a lot of experience growing their food indoors like they do with traditional farming.

As investment banker Erik Kobayashi-Solomon writes in Forbes, "Humans have 12,000 years of experience growing food, but only a generation or so worth of experience growing crops indoors. We are still progressing up the technology learning curve, to the extent that there is a lack of good data about basic questions — comparing crop yields for plants grown outdoors in soil, inside a greenhouse, and indoors using hydroponics, for instance."

But indoor operations may be able to ease at least some of the pressure industrial farming puts on our sorely overtaxed Earth.

The grow-your-own food movement

The best part about an indoor farming revolution may be that it's already begun — with individuals. The lockdown has seen a massive surge in the grow-your-own food movement, as people look not only for something to do with their time but also reduce their reliance on grocery stores.

(A shame we still haven't found a way to grow our own toilet paper.)

In the U.S., as Mashable reports, garden centers and seed delivery services have seen sales grow 10-fold during the pandemic, with Walmart selling out of seeds completely.

There's much breathless enthusiasm, and understandable optimism, to the indoor movement as people look to do things a little differently in the post-pandemic era.

"Thanks to giant leaps forward in the science of hydroponics and LED lighting, even people in windowless, gardenless apartments can participate in the revolution," writes Chris Taylor in Mashable. "With a number of high-tech consumer products on the way, the process can be automated for those of us without green thumbs."

And some farmers, like Benjamin Widmar, didn't need a pandemic to be the change he wanted to see. He's trying to grow enough tomatoes, onions, chillies, and microgreens to meet an entire town's needs. All from his indoor farm in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 650 miles south of the North Pole.

"We're on a mission … to make this town very sustainable," he tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Because if we can do it here, then what's everybody else's excuse?"

Take a tour of Widmar's operation in the video below:

Lead Photo: Advances in hydroponics and technology have made it possible to grow more of our food indoors. (Photo: Yein Jeon/Shutterstock)

Nature Fresh Farms is Working With BMO to Make Banking Accessible For Employees

Leamington, ON (May 25, 2020) – To make banking more accessible for its employees, Nature Fresh Farms is working with BMO to bring them on-site access to an ATM to access cash or to complete simple, everyday banking transactions.

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With current social distancing and business restrictions still in place, individuals are primarily leaving their residences for essential errands only. Nature Fresh Farms collaboration with BMO allows employees access to an on-site ATM at their farm location helping to reduce or eliminate employees’ essential trips to the bank. The new ATM has been very well received, with employees happy to have a more convenient means of completing financial transactions.

“Throughout this pandemic, we have been looking for ways to make things more convenient for our workers – to give them the option to avoid travel to town for necessities,” shared Vice President, John Ketler. “This has included bringing vendors on-site, some of whom, due to the rapid onset of restrictions, are not set up for debit transactions. We are providing a means for our employees to support these vendors.”

The installation of an ATM is just one of many measures taken by the company to make essential services more accessible to their employees and minimize any additional risks from off-site traveling. In addition, they have made groceries and prepared food easily accessible by bringing approved vendors on-site and allowing representatives from financial institutions to come to the facilities to help workers complete money transfers home.

“Agriculture is a vital part of the Canadian economy, and part of our purpose as an organization is to drive positive change,” said Roy Dias, Head, Specialized Industries, BMO Bank of Montreal. “We saw an opportunity to help Nature Fresh Farms bring everyday banking services to their team members – helping both their employees and the community. We will always look for ways to help, as we navigate this environment together.”

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About Nature Fresh Farms -

Continuously expanding, Nature Fresh Farms has become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable farms in North America. As a year-round grower with farms in Leamington, ON, Delta, OH, and Mexico, Nature Fresh Farms prides itself on consistently delivering exceptional flavor and quality to key retailers throughout North America, while continuing to innovate and introduce more viable and sustainable growing and packaging solutions.

SOURCE: Nature Fresh Farms | info@naturefresh.ca T: 519 326 1111 | www.naturefresh.ca

Pandemic Proof: S2G Ventures on Why Resilient, Sustainable And Healthy Food Systems Are More Important Than Ever

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by guest 18 May 2020

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Sanjeev Krishnan

This is a guest post by Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at S2G Ventures

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health and economic crisis like none we have seen in our lifetime. In the food supply chain, this has impacted employees that ensure that food is planted, harvested, and processed, grocery shelves are stocked and food is available to all people. It takes a global village to feed the world, and we have seen selfless sacrifice and silent grit to ensure the continuity of our food system. Because, if our food supply breaks down, this pandemic may move from a crisis to a catastrophe.

Over the past several month’s several cracks have shown up in the food supply chain. The pandemic is challenging the nature of our global supply chain, stressing logistics networks, and reinforcing the importance of labor. There are concerns about food nationalism, continued access to labor, and redefining the nature of food security from global to national systems. While now is the time for urgent action – from government and private sector – there is a need for longer-term investments required for building a more innovative and resilient future food system.

Our team at S2G Ventures spent several months researching and monitoring COVID-19 and its implications to better understand these questions, keeping a close eye on the news cycle, conducting extensive desktop research, and speaking with various experts across many fields. We spoke to epidemiologists, healthcare professionals, farmers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and other investors to gather insights and develop our perspective on the implications of COVID-19 on the world of food and agriculture. We have compiled our findings into a report that explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic to the food and agriculture industry and identifies the areas of innovation critical to building a healthier and more sustainable food system.

As an investor in companies across all stages of the food system, we believe our role in the recovery is to ensure we build a more stable, resilient, sustainable, and healthy system. We will continue to invest in entrepreneurs and innovations that are the catalysts for meaningful progress. Below, we offer a summary of our report, which can also be downloaded in full here.

Pandemics 101: A History of Recovery & Innovation

Taking a look back in time, the world suffered a deadly pandemic in 1918. The Spanish flu, whose origin is believed to be a farm outside of Kansas City, spread quickly across the globe. Although the world was not as connected, World War I was still ongoing, and troops were being shuttled between the United States and Europe. Between 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu is believed to have infected nearly a third of the global population and killed between three and 20 percent of those who were infected. In the end it killed between 40 and 50 million people. In the years following the Spanish flu, there was a bright period of innovation that included the adoption of the Bell telephone and modern medicine. It was an event that helped shape the future.

Between the Spanish flu and today’s pandemic, there have been seven major epidemics or pandemics. Each varies in mortality, duration, and contagion, but ultimately all come to an end. The economic recovery period that follows a pandemic-induced recession is generally different from traditional economic recessions. Pandemic-induced recession recoveries have generally seen a V-shaped recovery, while traditional recessions have varied between V-, U-, W-, and L-shaped recoveries. The global financial crisis of 2008 saw an L-shaped recovery. Typically, economic recessions have a longer duration and deeper economic consequences.

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The coronavirus pandemic is unique among prior events. While many events have temporarily shut down regions, none have had the same global shutdown that we are currently facing today. So, despite being able to draw comparison and insights to learn from pandemic economics, the situation is different due to a staggering rise in globalization, digitalization across many sectors, and the rise of fiat currencies. Pandemic economic history teaches us that one of the hallmarks is that innovation plays a critical role in the future normal that emerges. As Professor Katherine A. Foss notes, “disease can permanently alter society, and often for the best by creating better practices and habits. Crisis sparks action and response.”

While the direct effect of COVID-19 is on the population – with infection rates, social distancing, and shelter-in-place restrictions and continued operations of only essential businesses – there are significant implications across many industries. The second-order consequences of coronavirus are reshaping industries, catalyzing innovation, and encouraging resilience in business planning. Although the lasting impact on many industries is unknown, we see exciting innovation accelerating across automation, telemedicine, virtual reality, and transparency systems (i.e., blockchain or similar technologies).

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Everyone Eats – Pandemic Proof Demand, but Supply?

While the food and agriculture sectors are generally more resilient in bad economic situations, there are several sub-sectors that rely heavily on in-person labor and are currently strained due to the unique social distancing pressures placed on businesses. One significant pressure point is meat processors. Several large meat companies have been forced to shutter processing facilities due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Smithfield had to shut down one of its pork processing facilities that supplied roughly 5 percent of the U.S. pork supply, while JBS had to close a Pennsylvania facility that processed beef. The second-order consequence of these closures is the farmer, who may be forced now to cull their herds of cattle and hogs. The strain on this pressure point affects not only the farmer but also the consumer. Wendy’s felt the effects of this during this past week when nearly one-fifth of all 1,043 locations ran out of beef.

While it will take an extended period of time to fully understand the implications of consumer purchasing data coming out of the pandemic – more specifically if the duration of the consumer behavior shift will be a ‘fad’ or ‘trend’ – certain areas of the market are seeing a quick adoption of trends that were previously accelerating. As slaughter-house closures have increased, plant-based meats sales have jumped 200 percent. Plant-based meats remain a small portion of the market, but this is a significant and notable demand signal from consumers.

Coronavirus is notably changing how consumers shop, prepare and consume food. Between 2009 and 2018, out-of-home eating rose from 50.1 percent to 54.4 percent of the market. Now, with social distancing limited the ability to eat at restaurants, many are turning to preparing food at home or ordering delivery or takeout. And, despite food being a resilient sector, the bifurcation between grocery and foodservice has become clear.

In the grocery store, private label market-share gains are poised to accelerate, as consumers tighten spending and look for value-focused alternatives. However, we expect consumers to prioritize a balance of value and better-for-you brands instead of a complete tradeoff to value, consistent with the consumer megatrend towards better-for-you products.

Taking a step back, and observing the broader food value chain, we observed three primary delivery vulnerabilities in the food system:

1. Agricultural inputs to farms (e.g., seeds, animal feed, fertilizer, et al.)

2. Farm products to processors, packagers, spot markets and export markets

3. Food to retail distribution

This is important because the global food system relies on a just-in-time economy, where inventory levels are intentionally kept low. Meaning, that regardless if there is enough supply in existence, it may not be able to reach its proper destination if the supply chain is disrupted.

China, which provides a good example because it is further along in the lifecycle of the pandemic, has been suffering from this problem in the last several months. Upstream and downstream logistics are a major challenge; at the ports, there are thousands of frozen meat containers piling up because the trucking has effectively collapsed. Meanwhile, ports are running out of power, stoking fears that much of the food currently stored there will go bad. There is also an American company that makes immunization equipment for chicken that said their containers had been docked at Chinese ports for four weeks. Although China is doing its best to ensure that the grain planting season is not missed, the logistics of this supply chain are making it increasingly difficult.

 The Future of Food – COVID-19 and Calories

While we continue to watch the situation and the strain it is placing on the food system, we view the common threat that could bridge the existing system to the future as technology. Consumer purchasing behavior coupled with innovation may drive changes in market share and pressure existing players in the market. Although we have not seen COVID-19 create a new trend, we have seen several trends that were in motion pre-coronavirus further accelerated by the pandemic, including alternative protein, indoor agriculture, digitalization of agriculture, and grocery and food as medicine.

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Although animal agriculture remains a large and growing market, the pandemic has exposed challenges with the industries long production cycles, centralized production and limited processing facilities. It has allowed for faster consumer adoption of alternative proteins, including plant-based protein, fungi, algae and other biomass concepts including cellular meat. Notably, some of these technologies are further along than other, for example plant-based protein has been a trend for several years, while cellular meat remains in a research and development phase. We continue to believe that whatever the next generation of protein is, it will be driven by production speed, price and taste.

A second trend we believe is accelerating is food as an immunity. The convergence of food, science and technology may unlock this sector and usher in a new era in microbiome, functional ingredients, precision and personalized nutrition and medical foods. Prior to COVID-19, this was largely driven by nutrition-related disease, but the pandemic has exposed at-risk populations, with approximately 90 percent of hospitalized patients having one or more underlying condition, with the most common underlying condition being obesity.

Beyond specific trend acceleration, several themes emerge throughout this research that we believe may be catalyzed and emerge in a post-COVID-19 world. Digitalization will likely be driven by dis-intermediation to allow for new relationships with the consumer and to reduce risk throughout the supply chain. Decentralized food systems allow for the automation of local (alternative protein and produce) and the reshaping of complex perishable supply chains to reduce shrink and waste. They are also more omnichannel congruent as e-commerce, specifically online grocery, adoption accelerates. De-commoditization in the food supply chain, coupled with technologies that place deflationary pressure on the industry, may help catalyze breeding for attributes beyond yield (taste, protein content, et al), a return to polyculture farming and a shift from a strict focus on yield to profit per acre. Lastly, food as an immunity has the potential to bridge healthcare and food production and consumption for the treatment of specific nutrition-related chronic lifestyle diseases, as well as change the future of brands to focus on unique, functional ingredients. a

Our full report, The Future of Food in the Age of COVID,  is available online.

_____________________________

Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at S2G Ventures

Sanjeev has nearly 20 years of experience in sourcing, executing, managing, and exiting venture and private equity investments, including a focus in agriculture and food companies. As Managing Director, Sanjeev is active in developing investments and managing portfolio companies including, serving on many portfolio company boards. His portfolio work ranges from genetics, crop protection, soil health, digital/IoT, crop insurance, merchandising, indoor agriculture, novel flavor, and ingredients, new protein development, unique processors, and brands that will feed this changing consumer.

He is passionate about the role of innovation, entrepreneurship, markets, and system investing as a theory of change. Sanjeev has worked in the intersection of sustainability, technology, and health in many regions, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America.  He has invested over $500 mm in venture and growth-stage firms throughout his career.

Sanjeev began investing as a co-founder of the life sciences practice of the IFC, the $99 billion private investment arm of the World Bank. His previous investment roles include CLSA Capital Partners, Global Environment Fund, World Bank Group’s IFC, and JPMorgan. Sanjeev is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

About S2G Ventures: 

S2G Ventures (Seed to Growth) is a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture. The fund’s mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy and sustainable food. S2G has identified sectors across the food system that are ripe for change and is building a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture, and growth-stage investments. Core areas of interest for S2G are agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, IT and hardware, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands.

For more information about S2G, visit www.s2gventures.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Indoor Soilless Agriculture Could Supplement US Food Supply While Decreasing Environmental Impact of Food Production

WWF Report Examines the Environmental and Economic Viability of Scaling Indoor Agriculture Systems

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WASHINGTON, DC – WEBWIRE

May 18, 2020

The Markets Institute at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released an Innovation Analysis examining the environmental impact of various systems of indoor soilless farming. These systems include hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics in greenhouse and vertical settings. At scale, this method of farming could have positive effects on the environment by decreasing pressures on land, biodiversity, natural habitat, and climate. However, the industry also faces hurdles that prevent it from moving beyond its current specialization in high-end leafy greens.

“Indoor soilless farming could have a significant impact on how we grow food in the future, in certain categories. Right now we are looking at whether or not it can be viable—both economically and environmentally—to grow more fruits and vegetables in these systems at a large scale,” said Julia Kurnik, director of innovation start-ups at WWF’s Markets Institute. “If we can address the challenges and make this happen, it could be a real game-changer for communities that do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables for much of the year, or places that are food insecure.”

While these systems make efficient use of land and water, the energy footprint from lighting and cooling can depending on the local energy source, increase the overall environmental footprint. Indoor soilless farming is also considerably more expensive than traditional agriculture. However, there are several innovations under development that could significantly change the cost and environmental footprint to drastically alter the mid-to-long-term viability of the industry. These include progress in lighting, fiber optics, AI and machine learning, gene editing, renewable energy, co-location and co-generation, and waste and recycling.

The report details the next phase of the project, which aims to help solve the challenges identified in phase I. WWF will explore using stranded assets—large infrastructure investments such as power plants and postal hubs that have depreciated in value but will continue to be used in a limited capacity for 10-50 years—and build a robust coalition of local partners, including The Yield Lab Institute, to launch a pilot farming system in St. Louis.

“The Yield Lab Institute, working with World Wildlife Fund and the McDonnell Foundation, is proud to be a part of a distinguished, local team of community volunteers who are working to bring local, indoor and sustainable food production to the St. Louis area,” said Thad Simons, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Yield Lab Institute. “It will also spark innovation among our ag-tech entrepreneurs and is intended to provide access to nutritious food to the underserved areas of our community.”

Indoor Ag-Con Kicks Off New Webinar Series With United Fresh Produce Association Panel

INDOOR AG-CON KICKS OFF NEW FREE WEBINAR SERIES WITH UNITED FRESH PANEL DISCUSSION ON PRODUCE TRENDS, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDOOR GROWERS

Free Monthly Virtual Events To Share Content Originally Planned For May 2020 Annual In-Person Conference Postponed Due to Covid-19 Pandemic

LAS VEGAS ( May 20, 2020) – Indoor Ag-Con LLC, producers of the premier event for the indoor|vertical farming industry, is launching a free monthly webinar series to share content originally planned for its May 2020 in-person annual conference that has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Titled “Indoor Ag-Conversations,” the new virtual event series kicks off with the United Fresh Produce Association Panel: Produce Trends & Business Opportunities For Indoor Growers Emerging From Covid-19 Pandemic on Wednesday, June 3 at 4 pm EST.

Moderated by United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel, the panel will include Alex DiNovo, President and COO, DNO Produce and Paul Lightfoot, President and Founder, BrightFarms.  

“While Covid-19 has temporarily halted our opportunity to gather face-to-face for Indoor Ag-Con, it has not stopped us from sharing the incredible innovations and business-building opportunities our vibrant industry offers,” says Brian Sullivan, co-owner of Indoor Ag-Con. “We’re honored to have the United Fresh Produce Association kick off our first webinar with such a dynamic panel of industry leaders talking about the unprecedented challenges and opportunities we’re facing today.” 

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“Now more than ever it’s critical that we continue to find new ways to connect with industry peers to share industry ideas and experiences,” adds Tom Stenzel, President & CEO, United Fresh Produce Association. “Indoor growing is an important component of the fresh produce industry, and we’re excited to lead the first Indoor Ag-Con webinar on June 3 as we look ahead to our own new free virtual event, United Fresh Live!, coming the week of June 15.”

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With plans to feature one to two sessions each month, the new Indoor Ag-Conversations webinar series will feature content originally planned for the now postponed Indoor Ag-Con 2020 Conference line-up, as well as new sessions designed to help industry members find new ways to grow their business.  

Scheduled for June 3 at 4 pm EST, the Indoor Ag-Conversations United Fresh panel will share insights from (pictured clockwise from top left):

Moderator Tom Stenzel, the President and CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association, is a frequent speaker on industry issues and has been recognized for his leadership frequently throughout his career. Tom has testified numerous times before Congress, and works closely with leaders at the White House, USDA, FDA, and other U.S. regulatory agencies. He also leads the United Fresh Start Foundation, the association’s charitable foundation focused on increasing children’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The Foundation and its partners have donated more than 5,000 salad bars to schools in all 50 states.

Paul Lightfoot, President and Founder of BrightFarms, is creating the first national brand of locally grown produce. In four years, Lightfoot has led the company from a proof-of-concept to operating four greenhouses in key markets like Washington, D.C., Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. BrightFarms was named 235th on the 2017 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies, ranking 10th among all food companies and the only produce company featured on the list.

Alex DiNovo is President and COO of DNO Produce Group of Companies, a rapidly growing family-owned group of businesses located in Columbus, Ohio. DNO is a fresh fruit and vegetable processor, as well as a distributor, with a distribution network throughout the Midwest, Great Lakes, and the southeastern United States. DNO distributes to customers both directly and indirectly through its network. Alex is a fourth-generation family member who has been involved in the produce business from a young age. He has knowledge and experience in many areas of the produce supply chain.

Indoor Ag-Conversation webinars are free to industry members. To register for the upcoming June 3, 2020  session, visit www.indoor.ag/webinar. In addition, the Indoor Ag-Con team is currently exploring dates and options for its postponed May 2020 in-person event and will be providing updates soon.

ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con touches all sectors of the business, covering produce, legal cannabis, hemp, alternate protein and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. For more information, visit: https://indoor.ag

ABOUT UNITED FRESH PRODUCE ASSOCIATION
United Fresh brings together members across every segment of the supply chain to build relationships that are as solid with a handshake as with a contract. We empower industry leaders to join forces to shape sound government policy. We deliver the resources and expertise companies need to succeed in managing complex business and technical issues. For more information, visit: https://www.unitedfresh.org and to learn more about United Fresh LIVE! Visit www.unitedfreshlive.org

SPECIAL THANKS TO INDOOR AG-CON 2020 
SPONSORS, EXHIBITORS MEDIA ALLIES & INDUSTRY PARTNERS

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In addition, Indoor Ag-Con is proud to be a member of the Hemp Industries Association.

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Agritech Startups Are Solving The Biggest Crisis For India’s Farmers

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Shanthi S Inc42 Staff

18 May'20

Agritech startups are gearing up to resolve the issue at multiple levels from supply chain to financing the Covid-19 pandemic has derailed harvest preparation due to lack of agricultural labour and disruption in the transportation of produce

Maharashtra is among the worst-hit, where the grape harvest and supply chain has completely broken down India has around 130 Mn farmers with 195 m hectares of land under cultivation. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of the population. The gross value added by agriculture, forestry, and fishing is estimated at INR 18.55 lakh Cr (US$ 265.51 billion) in FY19.

However, it’s impossible for farmers, who largely live on sustenance to shoulder even a small disruption in cash flow putting them in deep debts. The pandemic has also derailed harvest preparation, due to lack of agricultural labour to harvest. Logistical curbs on transportation of produce are adding to their woes. The government’s move to alleviate their troubles by putting agriculture under the list of the essential services hasn’t done much to allay their fears.

Maharashtra is among the major affected areas where the grape harvest and supply chain is completely crippled.

“The available logistics has been erratic and certain offtake channels — hotels, restaurants, and catering as well as exports — have been temporarily imploded. For farmers who need to harvest their Rabi crops, lack of farm labour is adding to the misery,” Mark Kahn, managing partner of agritech-focussed Omnivore told Inc42.

Lack of labour may lead to large harvests going to waste, say the agritech entrepreneurs, experts, and investors that we spoke to. Farmers may also struggle to get good prices to support their families. Moreover, farmers who have just harvested crops or about to harvest (especially perishable crops) are most vulnerable due to supply chain disruption. According to reports, farmers had to discard tonnes of produce and some had to leave many quintals of crop and fruit to rot. This is on top of already existing issues such as poor post-harvest management, absence of cold chain, and processing facilities. According to government statistics, various studies on fresh fruits, vegetables, and fisheries in India have indicated a loss percentage ranging from about 8% to 18% in 2018.

With the situation likely to get worse in the pandemic, can agritech startups help the agricultural sector stay afloat? Given the fact that India is estimated to have more than 1090 agritech startups as per DataLabs, this sector has been spearheading a revolution in terms of technology. From high-tech drones, IoT devices and data analytics to AI and satellite imagery, India’s agritech startups have lately become crucial contributors to the agriculture economy.

How Startups Are Prepping Up To Use Tech To Address The Situation

Though agri-business is categorised under essential commodities act, the local authorities are not able to differentiate between agri-supply chains and other supply chain goods. This has led to a lot of on-ground confusion amongst companies and startups as cross-district and state border logistics is still a problem.

Smoothening The Supply Chain

“We are associating closely with other agri startups, government and large foundations and developmental agencies to accelerate our pace of reach to the farmers, to be of service in this crucial time,” said Ayush Nigan, cofounder and CEO, Distinct Horizon.

AgriBazaar, an integrated agri-marketplace founded in 2016, is also working closely with farmers, state governments and procurement agencies to allow farmers to download its app and trade on it from the safety of their homes. The platform has more than 1,13K farmers on its platform.“

Crop care startups are talking to procurement companies to help farmers sell produce and logistic and market-linkage startups are helping them in doing that. We are working with farmers across Maharashtra and Karnataka and enabling them to sell their harvested produce directly to our partner procurement companies,” Ananda Verma, cofounder, Fasal told us.

In the current situation, an aggregator model meets the COVID-19 safety procedures as it ensures no crowding in physical mandis and maintaining social distancing norms. For instance, AgriBazaar allows farmers to register and list the produce for sale, while buyers like merchants, traders, and corporates give orders for purchase. Once the deal is complete, the startup ensures the logistics of picking up the grain from the farmer’s doorstep and delivering it to the buyers’ godown or warehouse.

“I think every challenge is an opportunity. COVID19 is an opportunity for Indian agritech startups to showcase how tech-intervention and innovation in agriculture can solve the problem of not only yield but procurement and fasten the entire agri-supply chain,” Amith Agarwal, co-founder, and CEO, AgriBazaar told Inc42.

Homegrown ventures have understood the problem of the small size of Indian farms and have been following a B2C2B model whereby, direct linkages with the farmer gets established, aggregation is done to supply to large agri-buyers, processors or manufacturers and retailers noted Nigan.

Smart monitoring technologies will also play a crucial role here. With supply chains completely disrupted, monitoring the end to end supply chain operations becomes more important now than ever.

And smart farming technologies can be used for the same. “Smart farming technologies have the capability to monitor the end to end supply chain operations and provide the right remedy for many pain points of agricultural enterprises,” Jitesh N Shah, CRO of CropIn, which is a farm management-monitoring-traceability business solution provider, launched in 2010.

With experts saying that the coronavirus is here to stay for long and we have to learn to live safely, startups have also started sensitising and training farmers to take extra care to completely sanitize themselves before entering the farm. Many such as Barton Breeze have donated produce from our farms to the needy. Omnivore backed M.I.T.R.A is currently using sprayers and tech normally used for agriculture protection for sanitisation by partnering with municipal bodies.

Additionally, agritech startup DeHaat is working to support smallholder farmers in Bihar, UP, Odisha, and Jharkhand. Shrimp farming tech startup Aquaconnect is leading the charge to help aquaculture farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu survive the collapse of global shrimp markets. Similarly, Bijak is helping rural commodity traders and buyers transition to digital commerce. Clover is making sure greenhouse farmers avoid financial ruin while delivering fresh vegetables to kirana shops.

Creating Direct Linkages With Farmers

Many agritech startups have created direct linkages with farmers for procurement. And it is the need of the hour that the produce of the farmer finds a buyer. And then it is brought either to the warehouse or for end consumption. The direct linkages during such time reduce the chances of fraud or the farmer not getting the right price. Many startups with field staff and agronomists spread all over the country provide the critical last-mile logistics support to pick up the produce from the farmers and deliver it to the buyer. This is besides the value-added services like warehouse financing for the produce, quality checking facility, pre-sowing and post-harvesting solutions to increase yield.

Many companies are working towards delivering essentials to citizens, but there is still a shortage of essential goods faced by a majority of the leading e-commerce platforms. “Kirana stores, on the other hand, are attracting more footfalls and more customers who are going offline to buy essentials. Startups and SMEs are playing a major role by helping these kirana stores stock up during this crisis,” Prithwi Singh, co-founder, and CEO, SuperZop told us. The company is using its B2B agri-commerce platform to reach out to kirana stores and help them stock up staples along with the assurance of high quality.

With the lack of information on mandi timings and also the fear among farmers, many startups are working towards sending across the correct information. FarMart, for instance, has a mobile app that helps agri-input merchants disseminate information to their farmers through SMS alerts. “We identified an opportunity where merchants want to inform their farmers about the store opening & closing time. We rolled out this additional feature and merchants now informing their farmers regarding their inventory and service timings. This feature has been a great hit amongst our merchant base and is helping us acquire other merchants organically,” said Alekh Sanghera, co-founder, and CEO, FarMart.

Solving Payments For Agri-Businesses

Usually, farmers are paid in 2-3 days but currently, startups such as Farmpal are working on immediate payments in order to not just help farmers but also motivate others to bring in more produce which is in huge demand in cities. Farmers get their payments online in their bank account within the stipulated time from the startups. Farmpal, Pune based agritech startup that connects farmers to businesses directly, has launched new collection centres to help farmers maintain their daily income and to provide consumers with easy access to fresh produce.

With the aim to expand and increase outreach, Farmpal has launched the fourth collection centre at Kopargaon, near Shirdi and a distribution centre in Wadgaon Sheri in east Pune. This will be followed by three more distribution centres across Pune. “On the supply side, we are buying 100% produce from our farmers as earlier, the only difference being now we are buying whatever they can make available to us – either bring to our collection centres or help us pick it up from their farms. This is because consumers are less picky at this time given the crisis,” said Puneet Sethi, director, and co-founder, Farmpal.

Bringing Cities Into Play

The urban population in India stands at 377 Mn and is expected to touch 404 Mn by 2050. With 50% of the Indian population expected to live in cities by 2050, urban farming is something startups such as Homecrop, Growing Greens have been looking at as an option. This resolves the issue of pesticides to a great extent as fresh produce can reach city dwellers within a few hours and also without the need for resource-intensive transportation, refrigeration, and storage facilities.

“Since our farms are close to the city, we can reach the supermarket shelves in one hour compared to 3-4 days for the produce to come from village farms outside the city,” said Shivendra Singh, founder at Barton Breeze, which has 18 farms in cities.

While the hotels, restaurants, caterers segment or institutional sales are completely shut, supermarkets and local retailers have seen a spike in consumer spending on agri-produce as everyone is staying indoors and eating at home. Urban farming started by startups to primarily promote organic farming can resolve the supply issue now.

Startups such as Barton Breeze have been doing hydroponic and other soil-less farming and their farms continue to operate even in these testing times mainly due to hydroponic farming that demands lean operations, with just have 2-3 people to manage the half-acre hydroponic farm. During such a crisis, hydroponic farms can deliver quickly and better. Additionally, as compared to conventional farming which takes three months for produce (90 days), hydroponic farms can grow most veggies in 30 days. As compared to conventional farming, startups like Pindfresh do not depend on external weather. Founded in 2016, the Punjab-based startup uses technologies such as coco peat gardening and other soilless techniques, which takes less space, demands lesser water, and is free from pathogens and biological contaminants.

“The future of agriculture will be smart, controlled, precision farming that will help in sustainability as proved during the coronavirus crisis. We can help the economy bounce back more quickly and help feed the needy. We can hit the market more quickly and help the customers,” added Singh.

Agritech Coronavirus

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously.

More information about it can be found here.

Author

Shanthi S

Inc42 StaffJournalistShanthi has 13 years of experience in journalism, both print, and digital media. She specialises in writing long format feature stories. Trends, interviews and human-interest stories are her forte.

You can write to her at shanthi@inc42.com.

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Aldi Teams Up With Vertical Farming Company Infarm

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Maxime Delacour
Senior Retail Analyst
@RetailAnalysis

Aldi Süd announced a new partnership with Infarm, a leading indoor vertical farming company, in Germany. The first vertical-farm units will be installed in-store by the end of May.

Fresh move from the discounter

Aldi Süd is the latest retailer and the first discounter to partner with Infarm. Germany is Infarm’s largest market where it already partners with Edeka and Metro. By the end of May five Aldi stores in the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf regions will be growing fresh herbs and salads thanks to Infarm vertical units. Seven further stores will add this solution by the end of the year.

The in-store farms are fully managed by Infarm employees from growing to harvest and packing. Aldi and Infarm agreed on large volumes of products, most will be produced directly at Infarm’s greenhouses in order to supply around 300 stores. 

Targeting a larger audience

Over the last two years, Aldi has accelerated its investments in sustainable solutions improving its stores and assortment to target new shoppers. This one aims at creating an appealing offer to young health and environmentally conscious shoppers looking for a more sustainable lifestyle.

With this new development Aldi continues to upgrade its concept as part of its strategy to move away from its hard discount image. More broadly, the upgrade of food discounters is one of the five trends shaping the channel we highlighted for 2020.

Looking for more insight?

Check our Aldi hub and resilient and responsive hub for more related content.

Lead Photo: Source: Infarm

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UAE Agri-Tech Growing With New Multi-Million Dollar Fundings For Smart Farms

HALAL INDUSTRY BY PETRA LOHO

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08 MAY 2020

INSIGHT

SALAAM GATEWAY

When Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus and private equity expert Sky Kurtz started in Silicon Valley, he had no idea his investor and entrepreneur journey would lead him to farm tomatoes in the middle of the Arabian desert.

While a New Zealand composite materials business brought Kurtz to Dubai, what made him stay was to help the United Arab Emirate build food security.

“There’s a need to move to more resource-efficient agriculture everywhere, not only in the UAE,” Kurtz told Salaam Gateway. “The Middle East is just an extreme case with less arable land and little water.”

Food security largely covers three dimensions — the availability, affordability, and accessibility of food. The UAE’s biggest challenge is availability, given its agricultural limitations.

Conscious of the importance, the UAE established a State Ministry for Food Security in 2017, leading to the UAE National Food Security Strategy 2051 formulation.

The strategy aspires to champion agribusiness trade facilitation, enable technology-based production and food supply, promote international trade partnerships, enhance nutritional intake, and reduce waste, according to the ministry’s website.

Supporting the strategy financially, in March 2019, the Abu Dhabi government announced a 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) incentive package to support the development of the domestic agri-tech industry.   

Offering rebates up to 75% of R&D costs, along with other monetary and governing privileges, the scheme targets three agricultural segments to increase production: precision farming and agrarian robotics, bioenergy, and indoor farming.

SMART FARMS

Having co-founded his tech-enabled agribusiness focusing on year-round generation of fruits and vegetables already in 2016, Kurtz’s Pure Harvest Smart Farms hasn’t enjoyed grants from this government package yet, albeit being a perfect match.

However, in April, the firm raised $20.6 million in additional funding and secured a further $100 million commitment from Kuwait’s national investment company Wafra to finance the company’s local and regional expansion.  

“We want to grow very quickly. That’s why we raised such a large sum of capital,” Kurtz said. “Access to funds is a competitive advantage in this capital intensive business as we’re building food infrastructure.”

Initially, Pure Harvest received a $5.6 million seed funding from Shorooq Investment Partners and aligned with the UAE government by securing a 5.5 million dirhams ($1.5 million) investment through the Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund in October 2018. 

Kurtz’s fundraising success reflects on a worldwide trend: the global funding to agriculture technology start-ups grew by 43% year-on-year, to almost $17 billion in 2018, according to AGFunder, an online venture capital platform. The U.S., China, and India accounted for almost 80% of all agri-tech funding.

GREENHOUSE PROOF OF CONCEPT

Pure Harvest operates a high-tech, semi-closed, and climate-controlled greenhouse.

“We see ourselves as an energy company,” said Kurtz. “We harvest solar power and turn it into healthy calorie sources as cheaply as possible.”

Growing the product hydroponically, Kurtz views Pure Harvest exceedingly similar to a vertical farm.

“The big difference is we use natural light. We have more than most plants can utilize,” Kurtz said, alluding to the Middle East’s equator proximity.  

However, the entrepreneur feels his business model is to a greater extent financially viable than vertical farming.

“Our costs for certain products are under one dollar per kilogram,” the Pure Harvest CEO added. “Vertical farms produce typically between $3.50 and $5.50 per kilogram.”

Kurtz claims to have one of the world’s lowest manufacturing costs, of any food production system, including the most ambitious Dutch producers. 

“We are producing at a competitive cost structure now at our pilot farm. At scale, we believe we can do even better,” Kurtz said.

Pure Harvest’s pilot facility harvests about 600 tons bumblebee-pollinated and pesticide-free-grown tomatoes annually.

The company grows a variety of 17, soon to be 20, different kinds of tomatoes — from small, snack-able ones to exotic and aromatic Japanese pink ones.

“Tomatoes are a truly dynamic and technically challenging crop to grow,” Kurtz explained. “Growing greens is a lot easier, and the tomato market is super competitive with both local, regional and international competition – making it a great test case.”

“It was a matter of proving our concept from a technical but also commercial standpoint,” Kurtz explained, referring to the firm’s institutional investors seeking an ROI-making mass-market product as the company matures.

NO WASTE OF WATER

“We don’t waste anything. We capture it and use it somehow. Whether that’s heat energy, cooling capacity, or water,” Kurtz said.

When the greenhouse is closed, Pure Harvest controls and captures evaporation, the treated condensation is reinjected into the irrigation system to water the plants.

According to Kurtz, Pure Harvest uses a little over 30 litres of water per kilogram of production, compared to the around 250 litres of traditional farms.

This is a saving that is crucial for a water-scarce country like the UAE, listed the third most insecure country in the Middle East, after Yemen and Kuwait on the Pardee RAND Food-Energy-Water security (FEW) index.

The country’s renewable water resources are less than 100m3/capita/year — or one-tenth of the 1,000 m3/capita/year water poverty line — according to an article by Hameed et al. published by MDPI, a peer-reviewed journals issuer.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS AHEAD

Forming a partnership with Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, the founder and CEO at the Alliances for Global Sustainability, Pure Harvest secured over 30 hectares to design more greenhouses.

“We’ll build out Sheika Shamma’s land in multiple stages to a production capacity equaling around 24 hectares,” Kurtz said, noting the current farm is just under one hectare.  

The geographical expansion plans will see Pure Harvest also build in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Extending the product line, Pure Harvest will start growing greens and strawberries in the UAE soon.

MORE INVESTMENT

Early April, the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) announced it would provide 367 million dirhams ($100 million) to four firms – two local, two American – to establish new R&D and farming facilities.

“The UAE has been keeping the investments in the agricultural R&D in focus for a transformative food system,” Dr. Dino Francescutti, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) UAE representative, told Salaam Gateway.

“By determinedly facilitating R&D among its stakeholders, the UAE will be able to develop and benefit from new technologies, increase productivity and efficiency of its limited agricultural resources, thus contributing to the country’s food security and resilience.”

One of the four recipients of ADIO’s $100 million is Madar Farms, a vertical farming pioneer operating a R&D farm growing seven different microgreens in Masdar City.

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Founded in 2017 by Kuwaiti Abdulaziz AlMulla, Madar will build the world’s largest commercial-scale indoor tomato farm located in the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi that lies between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Farming vertically is certainly going up. From $2.5 billion in 2017, the vertical farming market size will likely surpass $20 billion by 2026, according to a research report by Global Market Insights.

Vertical hydroponic farms require artificial lighting, heating, and cooling systems, ventilation, shade and nutrient dosing, the Produce Marketing Association writes in the 2019 Fresh Produce Industry: United Arab Emirates report.

This explains why many UAE farms are hesitant to adopt the new technology regardless of the government support offered, fearing the increased set-up and electricity costs, according to the trade organisation.

There are more challenges to deal with, though.

“The agri-tech products developed in Asia, Europe, or North America were created to be successful in their environments and cannot simply be copied and pasted here in the UAE,” Madar Farms brand manager Haifa Alrasheed told Salaam Gateway.

“Effective localisation is the key to success as dust, humidity, and heat can take their toll.”

The tomato farm, designed by the Dutch producer Certhon will be installed with more than 5,000 LED fixtures and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2020. Certhon also equipped Pure Harvest’s pilot farm.

“This 5,000 square meter (0.5 hectares) facility will enable us to grow approximately more than a ton of fresh tomatoes every day,” Alrasheed said. “The domestic production only covers about 8% of the total consumption.”

“We’ll also triple the microgreens supply, sold through four online portals,” Alrasheed explained.  Demand dependent, the current daily capacity is up to 10 kilograms.

UAE CONSUMPTION   

By one calculation, the UAE’s food consumption is to grow at an annualized rate of 3.5% from 8.7 million tons in 2018 to an estimated 10.3 million tons in 2023, according to Alpen Capital’s September 2019 “GCC Food Industry” report.

In 2016, the UAE consumed 1.5 million tons of vegetables, with tomatoes being a favorite.

Domestic tomato production grew to over almost 79,000 tons in 2018, nearly 80% up from 2016, according to FAO statistics.

Despite the increase, the UAE is still not self-sufficient and must import to meet the demand.

With a 27.4%, 13.5%, and 12% share in dollar value, Jordan, India, and the Netherlands were the top three source markets for the UAE in 2018, according to the U.N. Trade Map, International Trade Centre. Iran and Malaysia followed with a 10.5% and 7.7% share, respectively.

COVID-19 CHALLENGING FOOD SECURITY

Now, the COVID-19 pandemic amplifies just how fragile food security is beyond the lack of arable land and water scarcity. 

“The diffusion of the pandemic poses major food security and supply chain threats worldwide,” the United Nations’ FAO UAE representative Dr. Francescutti said.

Labour shortages to produce, harvest and process food; an increasing farmer’s struggle to access the markets; the decreased perishable commodities supply, and transport restrictions blocking deliveries cause the risk, the FAO expert explained.

Sky Kurtz’s solution to mitigate such food supply chain risks is simple. “Support the homegrown champions,” he said, appealing to both the UAE leadership and to consumers.

(Reporting by Petra Loho; Editing by Emmy Abdul Alim emmy.abdulalim@salaamgateway.com)

Lead photo: Photo: Vertical farming at Madar Farms in the UAE. Photo supplied by Madar Farms.

© SalaamGateway.com 2020 All Rights Reserved

Irish Vertical Farming Technology Startup Farmony Signs European Distribution Agreement With US LED Horticultural Lighting And Vertical Farming Equipment Provider Sananbio

Dublin, Ireland | May 19th, 2020 ​

SANANBIO, a global leader provider in LED horticulture lighting and vertical farm technology, announces strategic distribution partnership with Dublin based startup for European markets. Farmony will build a network of interconnected, controlled environment vertical farms across Europe.

Irish Agtech company Farmony has signed a European distribution deal with Sananbio for their vertical farming Radix systems. The Dublin based startup, established in 2018, will incorporate Sananbio’s technology into their controlled environment vertical farming solutions.

“As our climate continues to change and populations across the globe expand, food production must evolve in order to keep pace with these unprecedented changes. We are delighted to announce our partnership with Sananbio; global leaders in cutting-edge vertical farming technology developed to empower the modern farmer and spur sustainable local food production. Sananbio is the ideal technology partner to complement our own customized, automated controlled environment software & hardware solution. ”-​ ​John Paul Prior, Strategy and Sales Director, Farmony

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Farmony: Left to right: John Paul Prior (Strategy Director), Dan O’Brien (CEO), Rodrigo Andrade (Operations Director)

“Farmony provides Sananbio with the ideal partner to expand our industry leading technology into the European markets. With over one million square feet of commercial vertical farms currently using RADIX, farmers, and investors in more than 10 countries believe in our company's highly engineered grow technology. In Farmony we have a partner that adds significant value to our product offering through exceptional sales & marketing, IOT focus and new product development. " -​Michael Yates, Vice President Sales, Sananbio

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ABOUT Sananbio®

SANANBIO is a leading Ag-tech company backed by one of the world’s largest LED chip manufacturers. Supported by an elite R&D team comprised of plant scientists, researchers, and engineers; SANANBIO utilizes state-of-the-art technology that enables growers worldwide in the horticulture industry to increase the quality and quantity of their yields. Years of extensive research and real-world deployment and operations allow SANANBIO to offer its customers proven, scalable, efficient and cost-effective solutions in LED horticulture lighting and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) vertical farming grow system; as well as turn-key vertical farm solutions including building, transfer, financing, and training of staff for both large and small-scale farming facilities. SANANBIO empowers growers with the technology and knowledge to achieve unprecedented results in farming operations.

Learn more:​ ​ SANANBIO

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Farmony build controlled environment Vertical Farming solutions: Left to right: Rodrigo Andrade, Dan O’Brien, John Paul Prior

John Paul Prior asks will vertical farming mean that Irish horticulture finally gets its 'day in the sun'?

ABOUT Farmony

With offices in Dublin & mainland Europe; Farmony provides an operating system for Controlled Environment Farms through a combination of software and hardware, customized specifically for vertical farming applications. The Farmony operating system provides producers with grow recipes, real time alerts, and feedback on the efficiencies of their farm, while also automating dosage, irrigation, and lighting.

Through the aggregation of the associated growing data from their network of producers, Farmony can then optimize yields and, through machine learning technology, ensure that the network is constantly improving it’s output for its network of users, establishing a growing efficiency algorithm.

Their partnership with Sananbio, facilitates all-year-round pesticide-free growth of leafy greens, microgreens, and herbs from a footprint of 55 Square Meters, producing the output equivalent of 5 acres of traditional farmland. Farmony has recently opened a facility in Poland to support their European expansion.

Learn More:​ ​www.farmony.ie​ ​www.farmony.pl

Media Contact: John Paul Prior +353 86 8116708

VIDEO: Guggenheim Tomatoes Are Monitored From The Netherlands

and the tomato man takes care of them in empty city New York

Although the Guggenheim’s “Countryside” show was shuttered by the pandemic, its crop of cherry tomatoes is still growing and feeding New Yorkers. In a video, Infinite Acres shows how they realized this project. 

The team with Infinite Acres tells how they realized the growing facility in New York and how they shipped several parts from the Priva company in De Lier, the Netherlands, to the US, combining it with local techniques to finish the growing facility.

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Watch the video here.

Though the project has evolved quite unexpectedly due to the COVID outbreak, meaning that the halls of the Guggenheim Museum are pretty quiet these days, with mostly just its ghosts and some security guards as company for the art. Oh, and then there’s the guy who takes care of the tomatoes.

David Litvin, an indoor crop specialist at 80 Acres Farms, tends the plants in a temporarily shuttered exhibition, “Countryside, The Future.” 80 Acres Farms are the growers and operators of the module. He moved to New York from Tel Aviv in February, along with his wife, Stefanie, and their Dutch shepherd, Ester, with a plan to stay six months harvesting the Guggenheim tomatoes. He was going to see the city, too. “I went out once to a comedy bar, but that’s it,” he said to The New York Times.  The museum has been closed since March 13, but Mr. Litvin still walks across Central Park every day around noon from his rental on the Upper West Side to tend to his flock. “When you grow tomatoes on Fifth Avenue, you want to have the perfect tomatoes, there’s no room to mess up,” he said. “If I have ugly plants, I’ll hear it from the neighbors.”

Read more at The New York Times. 

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Publication date: Tue 19 May 2020

PODCAST: Jim Pantaleo - Indoor Ag - The Future of Agriculture

Jim Pantaleo is a renowned expert and consultant for Indoor Vertical Farming and offers ag companies sound and technical advice on best practices. Some of his services include performing market research and business development work. Other than companies, Jim also works with different universities such as the University of Arizona, UC Davis, and the University of Santa Barbara. He also enjoys writing about indoor vertical farming and regularly speaks at ag-related conventions.

Jim joins me today to describe how indoor vertical farming will change the way we look at sustainable food sources. He shares the current technology available for indoor vertical farming and what we can expect in the next few years. He discusses the myths about soil nutrition and crops regarding indoor environments. Jim also explains why the ag industry is experiencing its own version of the Dot Com era. 

“There’s no degradation of nutrients when growing indoors because you’re controlling that environment.” – Jim Pantaleo

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

• The different kinds of skills modern agriculture needs.

• Why fruiting plants are the goal of indoor agriculture.

• The current challenges of indoor vertical farming.

• The debate around nutrients, soil, and natural sunlight.

• How they control the crops’ nutrient inputs.

• What The AgTech scene in Los Angeles is like.

• The major costs of having an indoor farm.

• Startups that have made great strides in indoor farming.

• Comparing the Dot Com era and the rise of indoor farming.

Resources Mentioned:

Gotham Greens

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Connect With Jim Pantaleo on LinkedIn 

Why The World Wildlife Fund Is Trying To Spark An Indoor Farming Revolution

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05-18-20

The conservation organization is known for work protecting endangered animals, but now it’s starting to help push for broad solutions—such as a major plan to expand vertical farms in St. Louis in an attempt to prove that local farming can cut emissions.

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BY ADELE PETERS

A network of caves in St. Louis, Missouri, was once used for brewing beer before the advent of refrigeration. Now, the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund is interested in helping the city repurpose some of that unused space for indoor farming—in a new pilot that can demonstrate how the indoor agriculture industry can become more sustainable and a viable way to make the food system more resilient.

The organization is best known for its work to save iconic species, such as protecting tiger habitat or reducing demand for elephant ivory. But within a section of the nonprofit called the Markets Institute, it also studies trends in agriculture and ways to help lower the massive environmental footprint of growing food, from the energy and water used on farms to the impact of clearing forests to make room for farmland.

The institute, launched in 2016, works with partners across the food industry on challenges such as how to prevent food waste or how to deal with impacts from climate change in the cocoa industry supply chain. The organization recognizes that the entire food system needs to change to protect nature, and it can play a role in catalyzing that change in the business world.

“We’re looking for new business models, new strategies and partnerships, and different ways of approaching things that are financially profitable as well as environmentally sustainable,” says Julia Kurnik, director of innovation startups at World Wildlife Fund. “Our goal as an institute is to find things that can happen quickly and at scale, so that’s why we’re interested in making sure they can really take off and live beyond our investment.”

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Image: World Wildlife Fund]

It saw promise in the nascent indoor farming industry. Companies that grow produce in greenhouses, or stacked in vertical units inside warehouses, can grow more food on far less land than traditional farming, leaving room for forests to stay in place or be replanted. The methods they use to grow food without soil also use far less water. If indoor farms are distributed in cities, they can also help avoid the carbon footprint of trucking produce thousands of miles across the country. Because the spaces are sealed and insects can’t get in, they can also avoid pesticide use; the produce is also more uniformly perfect and gets to customers more quickly, so there’s less food waste; the farms also aren’t affected by extreme weather outside, so crops won’t be lost in storms or impacts from a changing climate.

Image: World Wildlife Fund

Still, indoor farms aren’t environmentally perfect. In a new report, World Wildlife Fund examined the total environmental footprint of growing lettuce on fields in California versus a hypothetical indoor farm in St. Louis. The organization chose St. Louis for its study and pilot after searching for cities that met a certain list of criteria—a climate that doesn’t allow for year-round growing, a large population, and stranded assets that could be used as infrastructure for growing food. Because of St. Louis’s unique industrial infrastructure, including the abandoned caves, it was chosen from a shortlist of 10 cities. (WWF is not investing in the projects itself, just helping set up the infrastructure for governments and companies to work together on the effort.)

In its study of the potential of indoor farming in St. Louis, the organization confirmed that soilless indoor growing can save land and water, but the researchers also identified challenges. The lights used to grow crops indoors use large amounts of energy, though the technology has become more efficient, and generate so much heat that greenhouses often have to use air-conditioning to maintain a steady temperature, even in the winter. If you grow lettuce in Monterey, California—in a region where much of the country’s lettuce is grown—and ship it to St. Louis, the carbon footprint is lower than growing in a standard indoor farm in St. Louis now. That’s because St. Louis still gets most of its energy from coal, and that outweighs the footprint of driving lettuce long distances in a refrigerated truck or the benefits from avoiding pesticides or food waste.

The report also examines ways that the industry could shrink that footprint, from fiber-optic tech that can bring sunlight into a room to options for renewable energy. If the farms can use less energy, there’s also an economic benefit—and that will begin to make it possible for companies in the industry to expand beyond growing leafy greens. Greens such as lettuce and spinach are common now in indoor farms because they grow more quickly than, say, strawberries or tomatoes, and they fit within the economics of current growing systems.

In St. Louis, the nonprofit is bringing together a group of stakeholders, including existing indoor farming companies, local plant science experts, community groups, the local power company, potential funders, and potential customers such as grocery stores, to test new alternatives. Several types of unused or underused infrastructure may work as farming space, such as cold storage in postal hubs, or space next to power plants that can take the excess heat from an indoor farm and convert that into energy.

The city’s caves are of interest because they’re naturally cool, helping offset the need for air-conditioning. By the end of the year, the aim is to have an agreement for a pilot design, either a single farm or a network of farms, that can be built in the city in 2021. “We won’t build the farm or own the farm,” says Kurnik. “Our model here is to bring all the players together.”

Once the pilot proves how well the new approaches work, that can be shared more broadly with the industry. The project may also be able to share some knowledge about technology such as automation, which can help bring down the cost of growing. (Labor is a major expense at indoor farms, and robots can help address that, while also spurring the creation of some more highly paid jobs in the industry than farm labor.) Right now, existing farms “are each investing in their own technology and R&D,” she says. “If there were standardizations across some of that, it might be able to boost the entire industry.”

Communities outside St. Louis will also be able to learn from the pilot, both as a way to reduce the environmental footprint of their local food supply and a way to make the supply chain more likely to survive disruption from climate change. While interest in indoor agriculture is already growing in some areas—for instance, water-starved Abu Dhabi, which wants to create a more resilient food system that doesn’t rely as much on imports—it could eventually be much more widely used elsewhere if the energy and economic issues can be addressed. In California, increasing drought may eventually make traditional farming less and less feasible. Other impacts from climate change, including extreme heat and increasing storms and floods, are also beginning to make traditional farming more difficult. Indoor farming “has potential to be one tool in the toolbox for tackling those things,” says Kurnik.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley, and contributed to the second edition of the bestselling book "Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century."

Vertical Gardens Take The Hudson Valley’s Farm-to-Table Scene to New Heights

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Sabrina Sucato

Photos by Vertical Field

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Vertical Field Makes its Local Debut At a Leading Poughkeepsie Restaurant, With a Monsey Grocery Store Soon To Follow

In the Hudson Valley, farm-to-table is less of a foodie trend and more of a way of life. As an ideal, it’s woven into the threads of the community, crisscrossing its way between farms, artisans, restaurants, and the locals who support them all.

Even during the COVID-19 crisis, when so many in the region struggle to find their footing, the movement lives on through support for farm markets and restaurants, many of which are in new territory when it comes to delivery and takeout.

Yet it’s never gone quite this far. Or, ahem, this high.

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Photo by Vertical Field

In a first for the Hudson Valley, farm-to-table takes a vertical turn. It’s all thanks to Vertical Field, an Israel-based agro-tech startup that crafts vertical agricultural solutions that make access to food easier and faster while reducing waste and cutting down on human handling – a major boon during a time of social distancing.

“Vertical Field offers a revolutionary way to eat the freshest greens and herbs by producing soil-based indoor vertical farms grown at the very location where food is consumed,” explains Vertical Field’s Chief Executive Officer Guy Elitzur. “Our urban farms give new meaning to the term ‘farm-to-table’ because one can virtually pick their own greens and herbs at supermarkets, restaurants, or other retail sites.”

While Vertical Field has installed gardens across the Middle East and Europe, it’s recently found a home at Poughkeepsie’s Farmers & Chefs, where chef and owner John Lekic uses it to take the hyperlocal experience at his restaurant even further.

“It’s making a full circle for a chef and restaurateur,” he says. “You get to serve the food you not only prepared or cooked, but you also grew from seed to plate.”

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When Lekic first came across Vertical Field during an exhibition at the Culinary Institute of America in late 2019, he was hooked from the start. Knowing that the system would be a perfect fit for his concept, he ordered one for his Hudson River food truck-turned-eatery.

Lekic’s vertical garden arrived two days after Governor Cuomo mandated the closure of on-premise restaurant operations in New York State.

“It was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty,” Lekic recalls. For the safety of his staff, he called for a break in operations to ensure no one was sick. During that time, he dedicated himself to setting up his vertical field. “It kept us busy. We installed our farm and planted about 10 days after. We already had our first crop.”

A rapid turnaround time is one of the pros of Vertical Field gardens, which take about three to four weeks per harvest. According to Lekic, he anticipates he’ll be able to grow about 400 pounds of produce per month. Much of it will be salad greens such as buttercrunch lettuce, kale, and arugula, although he also planted herbs like rosemary, sage, and basil.

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While Lekic appreciates the convenience of the garden, which resides onsite at the restaurant for customers to see, he also loves that it’s a bug-free, pesticide-free operation with less need for human contact. With fewer intermediary steps (no transportation from producer to restaurant, for example) and up to 90 percent, less water required than in a traditional garden, Vertical Field urban landscapes are just about as eco-friendly as it gets.

“You can definitely taste that,” Lekic enthuses. “There are no chemicals. That’s a great experience.”

Just as Lekic values the freshness, so too do his customers. Farmers & Chefs is open for delivery and pickup during quarantine, so consumers are able to taste the metaphoric fruits of the garden’s labor for themselves. In fact, the garden has been such a hit that Lekic is brainstorming ways to incorporate the produce into more unique offerings.

“We make housemade ice cream with brown fennel and pistachio,” he says. “We’re playing around with some product that we aspire to take to market.”

Lekic may be the first to install a Vertical Field in the Hudson Valley, but he’s already paved the way for others. In Monsey, Evergreen Supermarket will soon have a sky-high garden of its own.

“I heard about [Vertical Field] through some people from Israel who showed me how some vertical farms are being set up in supermarkets,” explains supermarket representative Menachem Lubinsky. If not for the COVID-19 outbreak, he adds, Evergreen’s vertical garden would already be in place. As it stands now, the market expects the container will be delivered soon.

“I’m very excited about it,” says Lubinsky. “The technology allows it to have constantly changing light and heat. It eliminates the transfer from farm to supermarket and guarantees supplies.”

Lubinsky expects that Evergreen’s clientele, many of whom are already interested in more natural, organic products, will take to the Vertical Field produce immediately. Since Evergreen will set the container up in its parking lot, customers will be able to watch the garden grow during every shopping trip. If all goes well, the store may even purchase a second Vertical Field for its store in Lakewood, NJ.

“Almost everything you want to grow can grow,” Lubinsky enthuses. Fingers crossed, he hopes strawberries will soon be available for Vertical Field gardens, too.

Building Resilience Into The Vegetable Supply Chain Using Container Farming

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Canada’s food supply chain is robust and reliable - even in times of the COVID-19 crisis - but there is an opportunity to become more self-sufficient. Container farming can provide your food supply with some autonomy and reduced reliance on external food supply chains.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN DURING COVID-19

Empty shelves at the outbreak of the pandemic were a shock to many as grocery store retailers have experienced shortages, or delays, in their supply chain during this adjustment period. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) wrote in a special COVID-19 report that “supermarket shelves remain stocked for now [...] but a protracted pandemic crisis could quickly put a strain on the food supply chains, a complex web of interactions involving farmers, agricultural inputs, processing plants, shipping, retailers and more.” The FAO emphasizes that there is enough supply, but transportation is lacking to help get the crops where they are needed most.

FOOD PRICES ARE RISING

Even before COVID-19 struck, food prices in Canada were predicted to rise between 2 and 4 percent, especially vegetables and bakery items. Now, according to a new forecast by the University of Guelph and Dalhousie University, researchers say the factors contributing to the rise have changed but they still expect prices to rise nonetheless. Plus, grocery stores are now spending more to ensure the proper protection protocols are in place on top of paying their essential workers more. These costs won’t be changing soon, so what ways can more resilience be built into the grocery store model?

Students in Kugluktuk, Nunavut help run their Growcer system which provides produce to the school and community.

EVERYONE IS IMPACTED DIFFERENTLY

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It is important to note that not every community’s food supply is going to be impacted the same way. In a Food Secure Canada webinar about Food Policy and COVID-19, the speakers spoke to how rural and Indigenous communities will be impacted differently than cities. One of the speakers, Jessica McLaughlin with the Indigenous Food Circle, said, “What has become very evident to us is the vulnerability of communities on that big industrial food supply chain and the lack of autonomy to self-determine their own food systems.” However, Mclaughlin added that despite this, communities are working together. “In this crisis, communities have been really resilient . . . you really see how communities pull together and they are taking this into their own hands,” McLaughlin said.

WHAT COULD A SOLUTION LOOK LIKE?

Each community has different needs, but one possible solution is container farming. With container farms, communities and grocery stores can grow a variety of produce year-round, no matter the weather, and even customize what’s being grown to match the demand of the community. You’re also not stuck to growing one crop. A grower can grow multiple types of produce at a time and switch out what’s being grown regularly. Having a local, year-round, consistent supply of produce allows the community not to rely solely on external sources and can provide a buffer when the supply chain experiences delays. 

The Yellowknife Co-op's Growcer unit is operated by its existing employees who see it as an opportunity to serve their community.

Now, hydroponic growing might sound technical but operating one of Growcer’s systems is extremely simple. It only takes one week of on-site training to have employees comfortable with the system. Justin Nelson, general manager for The Yellowknife Co-op, shared that their employees love working in the Grower unit. “On a cold dark day in Yellowknife there’s no better place to be than inside the Growcer unit,” Nelson said. “When you’re actually harvesting the product that you’re selling it’s a great feeling.” You can read more about The Yellowknife Co-op’s story to see how they integrated a container farm with their store.
Food sovereignty and the ability for communities to decide how their food systems run has been brought to the forefront during COVID-19. It’s impossible to predict what lays ahead, but we do know that this could be a time for a reset for some of us.

Stephanie

April 27, 2020

Get Growing Today!

VIDEO: Babylon Harvested Here - Remotely Managed Micro-Farm

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Marc Oosterhuis

Strategic Advisor,

International Manufacturing and Distribution,

Sales and Marketing Management, Connector.

Babylon is often asked how our remotely managed,

but locally supported micro-farms work

The new video below should answer some of your questions but please contact us for any additional information. (www.babylonmicrofarms.com)

#Urbanfarming #Agtech #Foodtheater #Farmtotable #Pesticidefree #Smartfarms #Healthyfoods #Growyourown

What The Heck Is Farm Management Software?!

By Aaron Magenheim, CEO & Co-Founder of AgTech Insight & Growers Insight

May 2020

Technology specifically built for Agriculture, (commonly known as AgTech or Precision Ag), has become an exciting space with Farm Management solutions leading digitalization. “Farm Management” has also turned into a buzzword many people use broadly and don’t really understand the importance of and details around – especially in our rapidly changing world.

As CEO and co-founder of AgTech Insight, a global advisory and implementation firm specializing in AgTech, I have been monitoring the evolution of this industry for several years, evaluating both existing and new solutions and companies. In 2015 we launched our first AgTech Market Map leveraging our internal solutions database by providing a free, valuable resource for those wanting a better understanding of which companies are leading the market organized by category.

Over the past couple of years, our database of digital AgTech solution providers has grown to over 3,000 companies. Farm Management Software (FMS) has become the largest category, with over 500 listings. As we once again reviewed the details of each company to choose those we feel are leading their sector, it became clear we needed to further break down the FMS category based on core competency. This article explains the industry’s current state and how, as these AgTech solutions work in combination, they become extremely valuable for AgriFood businesses. We’ve also included an infographic illustrating how these technologies work together, who uses them, dataflow processes, and the value they bring throughout the organization.

Five years ago, lots of companies wanted to be the leading “FMS” platform. Today there is still no clear winner, so I think we can all agree it’s too big of a task with too many variables for one technology company. We must focus on user success, adoption, and RoI, therefore, our approach is to piece together many best-in-class solutions and then aggregate them — like they do in almost every other industry — to meet the needs of customers.

As the AgTech industry matures, there are companies who get really good at solving one specific problem becoming their “core technology.” This helps everyone understand where each company can provide the most value, as well as identifying the solution as complementary rather than competitive.

While the industry becomes more collaborative and standardized, each solution will continue to be a very important tool used day-to-day by some people on the farm while also feeding that data into larger farm management systems and platforms. These larger platforms are aggregating a variety of point source data being collected and provide a wider view of what’s happening on the farm for mid-level management. This data will be further shared to a business intelligence platform, which helps leadership make financial and business decisions but will not typically be used by a farm supervisor managing daily activities and production.

Leadership Level Solutions

Farm Management/ERP Software Platforms

You can think of these platforms as “enterprise solutions” from Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and SAP’s of the world...but for Ag. They work with a variety of integrated software applications and systems to bring these dispersed datasets together and provide a variety of often custom analytic insights to company leadership. These platforms require an administrator and are primarily used to make financial and large business decisions rather than improving the day-to-day production of a specific crop.

Sustainability

Sustainability is an important topic across any organization and (along with agility) drives its future. Most companies and governments are integrating sustainability efforts across their business from soil and animal health through carbon farming and logistics. To meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) by 2030, a huge effort needs to be put forth by every person, so this category spans the entire organization.

The following diagram shows the flow of decisions and data including each user group by category:

Upper-Level Management/Administration Solutions Farm Accounting Software

Tracking an Ag company’s financials is more important today than ever, thus feeding granular data from both revenue as well as ops/expenses to count pennies is of utmost importance – not only to keep the company in business, but to be able to calculate real RoI (Return on Investment) for innovation efforts and other expenditures. Many of the other systems being used across the operation will feed financial data into this system.

Big Data Providers

There is a plethora of data being collected from millions of sources, and while it may not always be extremely specific to your exact case/location (as in weather), leveraging Big Data across market pricing, asset values, consumer trends, and even imaging can be used to further support a farmer’s decision- making by finding anomalies, providing a larger data set, and more.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

As Ag-focused tools to fill the needs of the sector have not yet emerged, great platforms and developer’s tools prominent in other industries are the solutions we can leverage in the near future. These tools can be used as a front end user interface like Power BI or Tableau, allowing the user to run data into the platform to analyze, build projections, prescriptions, and automate processes. They can also be used in the back end of other solutions, doing the heavy lifting and data crunching before sending the prescriptions and actions back to a software’s user interface or to be carried out autonomously.

Mid-Level Management and Workforce Solutions

Crop/Animal Management Software

This is still the largest bucket in the Ag software world, but we have narrowed it down significantly. These FMS are focused more on the operations side, helping to grow a better crop while reducing inputs. They are typically pureplay software and use API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) to collect and share data from a variety of applicable sources. These solutions are most often used by Ag operations directors through ranch managers to get a high-level view of what’s happening across their operations and highlight potential issues and opportunities for improvement. The workforce also uses these solutions by tracking their activities and receiving recommendations. It can also be a catch-all place to aggregate data and display important KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) on a dashboard for easy and quick access to what is most important while allowing a deeper dive to further inspect as needed.

Mobile Apps, Scouting and Manual Data Collection

These important tools are typically used by advisors, agronomists, PCA’s (Pest Control Advisors), foremen, laborers, etc. to collect data and verify as tasks are being done. They also create an historic record that can be used in the future to compare and analyze events like pest infestations, animal health, or water usage.

IoT, Monitoring, Control, and Animal Tracking

There are a number of IoT platforms which focus on fixing a certain problem such as collecting soil moisture, irrigation data, and weather, or tracking a cow to alert when it’s becoming sick or ready to be bred. Their intention is to improve profitability and sustainability while also growing a better product. These hardware-centric approaches use real-time sensors (often from 3rd parties) to collect a variety of data on crops, animals, weather, equipment, people, and more before sending it to a database in the cloud. They produce real records and ground-truthing which can be used to trigger alerts, for analytics, modeling, to calibrate machine learning or AI models and more.

IoT Plus Analytics User Interface Similar to the above category, this is a large sector which also focuses on a specific problem. However, these companies have not only built the hardware portion, but they have also built a software user interface including more advanced analytics or modeling to provide actions around the conditions they are reporting. They typically will also pull in data from other sources to support the decision-making for the specific problem they are solving.

Input and Farm Operations Efficiency and Optimization

These solutions concentrate on helping improve the efficiencies around spray, variable rate applications, or energy/water usage. They can also help with logistics and optimization across a farm by having the right people, equipment and other resources at the right place, at the right time. This can reduce harvest costs by not having trucks and trailers waiting around and streamlining trucks arriving at a processing facility.

Labor Management

Ensuring you have the required workforce and staying connected with them has become a constant battle, as has ensuring they are performing the tasks planned at an acceptable level. These solutions can help mitigate labor shortages while collecting valuable insights to be fed into a FMS and enterprise solutions.

Food Safety/Compliance

This sector of solutions have mostly been built to mitigate risk but have a much larger role to play as they are integrated into larger platforms. Many will start using a backbone blockchain technology, allowing for easier data segregation and to provide invaluable insights into both cost and risk evaluation.

Summary

With so many great technology solutions available today, deciding where to start and who to work with is important. The key to success comes through creating a cultural shift into modernization throughout a business organization. Our companies specialize in designing and implementing successful innovation plans for our clients.

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Aaron Magenheim, CEO & Founder AgTech Insight & Growers Insight

AaronM@AgTechInsight.com

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